Reading Notes: Sita Sings the Blues, Part A

I love how this mixes traditional elements with a modern, occasionally irreverent tone—the mood is set perfectly when Sita rises from the waters and reaches out to cue the music, and you’re expecting traditional stuff...and then it’s American music from the 1920s instead.

That led into a nice intro/title sequence, too, which gave a taste of the world-building and myths to come by introducing various gods and creatures and images unique to this mythos. The music was perfect at setting the mood here, too: traditional music over a modern beat.

My favorite part of this movie, hands-down, are the ancient narrators who squabble lightly over various details of Rama’s story. They were there themselves, so they have firsthand knowledge, but it’s been a while since then, see, so their memories are a little rusty. They assemble the story together like a puzzle, correcting each other on everything from events that went down to timelines to how to pronounce names. Occasionally they poke fun at plot holes or elements that just don’t make sense, too, but the others always convince the skeptic to move on quickly and hilariously. It’s tons of fun.

As for the story itself, I thought it was interesting how casually Rama and Sita were during the great Demon Dispatch in the forest. It might be fun to do a story about a monster-hunting pair who are equally casual, dealing with a fight or hunt while more focused on some personal issue at hand.

I also still think a story about one sibling approaching her/his older crime boss sibling for help could be a lot of fun, like when Soorpanaka approached Ravana for help with Rama.

Plus, I liked the narrators’ discussion of Ravana, and how the guy on the right pointed out that Ravana’s an interesting case because “actually, the only bad thing he really did was capture Sita,” and he was a pretty decent guy besides that. Affable villains are always fun, so that’s one route this could go—but it could also be spun into a story about a good person who made one huge mistake that’s come to define him, which I like better.

It might also be a fun to do a story featuring a prisoner who’s 100% unafraid, like Sita was when Ravana was threatening her and she just said, “Your ugly yellow eyes should fall out of your head at how lustfully you look at me,” and then added that the only reason she hasn’t destroyed him yet is because it’s not necessary. Maybe my prisoner is unafraid because they can’t be killed—because they’re either a creature or supernaturally unable to be harmed or killed. I’ll have to see.

Finally, I also liked the lyrics from one of Sita’s songs about Rama, and think the whole charming rogue/thieving scoundrel thing could be fun to play with too: “He’s not an angel, he ain’t...with all his flaws, I know he’ll get by.” The ability to interpret that last part as him getting by not despite his flaws, but because of them, is pretty great as well.





Bibliography: Sita Sings the Blues by Nina Paley. Source: YouTube.

Image Credit: "Bhavana Sita Contaminated" by Nina Paley. Source: Wikimedia Commons.